Suggestions Re: (More SEO Spam)

The number of spams I've received lately which have Suggestions Re: [My Domain Name] in the subject line, is quite atrocious. These are emails from "firms" which want to promote my website (for a fee, of course).

Are they legitimate? Good question. As I've said before, if they're so good at promotion, why in the world do they have to resort to spam to get business?

But let's take a look at two spams in particular. Here's the first:

Dear Website Owner,

If I could get you five times the RELEVANT traffic at a substantially reduced cost would you be interested? National Positions can place your website on top of the Natural Listings on Google, Yahoo and MSN. Our Search Engine Optimization team delivers more top rankings than anyone else and we can prove it. We do not use "link farms" or "black hat" methods that Google and the other search engines frown upon and can use to de-list or ban your site. The techniques are proprietary, involving some valuable closely held trade secrets. Our prices are less than half of what other companies charge.

I would be happy to send you a proposal using the top search phrases for your area of expertise. Please contact me at your convenience so I can start saving you some money.

Now, normally I don't bother posting names and addresses, but it's important in this case. Take note of the author of this spam: Barry Brenner. I find this very interesting because if I look at the "FROM" line of the email, it shows: Barry Burns. And the email address starts with owen.

Kind of suspicious, don't you think? But wait! It gets better! Here's the fifth email I received with that same subject line:

Dear Business Owner,

We are the recognized world leader in generating top rankings for our clients on the Internet. If you partner with us we will help you achieve your Internet marketing objectives and more by:

• Generating top organic rankings• Custom solutions for your website• Timely quantifiable metrics to evaluate your progress.• Guaranteeing an ongoing maintenance program that will keep you positioned in the forefront of your industry on the Internet.

With your permission, I would like to send you a detailed proposal describing how we can assist your company in reaching your Internet sales goals.________________________________________